Osaka’s Hashimoto calls on South Korea for evidence of ‘comfort women’

Japan’s outspoken mayor of Osaka, Toru Hashimoto, made comments on Tuesday that South Korea has yet to show proof that its women were forced to serve as sexual slaves to the Japanese Imperial Army during World War II. Known by the euphemism “comfort women,” this issue has been at the heart of the tensions between the two countries ever since Japan’s occupation of Korea ended after WWII, with much of the population still demanding apologies to this day. Hashimoto’s remarks included the statement that there is no evidence the women were assaulted or forced into sexual slavery.

The Chosunilbo points out that in 1993, then cabinet secretary Yohei Kono spoke for the Japanese government in his admission that the Imperial Army did manage the establishment of “comfort stations” and the women who worked within. Hashimoto has been gaining popularity in recent months, and many expect his local political party, the Osaka Restoration Association, will play a big part in future elections, as well as the mayor himself possibly becoming a candidate for prime minister one day. The Korean media labels him as having far-rightwing views, such as his opinion that children should sing the Japanese national anthem in class everyday.

Comment Policy : Our comments section is open and welcome to anyone who wishes to participate in discussion or share their point of view, regardless of what it may be. In order to limit spam and those who wish to impede meaningful conversation, we are now requiring users to log in with an account or verify their email address. However, the following behavior will result in your comment being deleted or, if continued, permanent removal from conversations: posting under multiple names, making hateful/racist comments, or making no valuable contribution by posting the same thing repeatedly.

Prkrst

Mr. Hashimoto, do not insult the intelligence of Japanese civilians who recognize the horrible acts performed on women forced into sexual slavery, as well as those women themselves by claiming that there is no proof. Denying a common knowledge does not protect Japan’s reputation, but rather diminishes it. Only with Japan’s acknowledgement will this issue rest and the world move on. Your comments encourage the ruthless image of Japan on the world stage.

Cleo

Having it both ways, right? Apologizing loudly for Western media on the same day as your frat brothers visit Yasukuni without trepidation or fear of retribution or LIGHTNING.

How much longer before this guy and Ishihara follow Akihito’s lead and announce that they are part Korean so it’s all good.

Dalsuh

It’s okay, Japan already apologized. Don’t listen to him, he’s only a elected representative of the Japanese people.

Dalsuh

I wonder how diplomatic relations would be between Japan and her neighbors if Japanese war criminal’s descendants were expelled from the Japanese Government/Parliament,etc.

Cleo

so long Akihito and his personal shinkansen, his annual powerball size budget, etc. etc, etc.

he wouldn’t get to wax on, wax off about how SIMILAR England and Japan are – well, he would think so since he spies on QE2’s entire family tree and copies their every move. He’s LONELY. he doesn’t get invited to too many good parties so he needs to know how real aristocrats operate.

Dalsuh

Yep, akihito is just a lemming for the real monarchy.

Cleo

I never understood why my American media experience was so rife with an evolution of our understanding about rape, blaming the victim, date rape, abortion rights and gay violence until now. There is no one who doesn’t see that Japan is wreaking emotional violence upon the surviving comfort women. They are blaming the rape victims and insinuating that because Korean girl bands wear short skirts, then the Comfort Women were ASKING for it.

I don’t care what Abe said or really thinks. The Japanese will say and do whatever they can get away with.

I WOULD like to know exactly what America is going to do because it looks like Japan is going back on the deal – America let Hirohito live and Japan live in exchange for Japan simply shutting up and allowing the Allies to not teach the truth and depth of Japanese atrocities. Nanjing was not an isolated incident. The Toisanese and Cantonese in the South got it far worse.

if Japan isn’t holding up their end of the deal when they were the primary beneficiaries, what is America going to do since the Japanese described American intellectual ability as “monocellular” shortly before refusing to allow the Marines to remain in Okinawa past the end of the current lease.

You know, Japan has essentially decloaked. Their yakuza has been in Asian countries for decades. They’re in America but got spooked by the FBI investigations in the 1990s. Now they think America is weak, poor, distracted, obese.

They’re not worthy of American lives spent neutralizing their threat again. What are we going to do?

Cleo

I never wanted to know what happened in a “comfort women house” – I never wanted to know about the little girls who were taken there and how many Japanese soldiers had no problem with hurting them in there.

And now Japan thinks it is okay to defend itself by claiming that others have done what they have done so it is perfectly okay – if that were true, why don’t notoriously strict Japanese criminal trials result in the majority of criminals successfully using the defense that what they did was not wrong because someone else already got away with it before. Japanese jails would be empty.

It seems like a lot of people are misguided by the whole “Japan not accepting the existence of ‘comfort women'” thing. The main issue that has been troubling Japan is not the fact that they want to deny and justify their “rape”, but rather the kidnapping and arrangement of ‘comfort women’ were organized and committed by korean or non-korean local private agencies. Japanese government’s demand for “more proof needed” is solely coming from this. In addition, when this matter was first presented to Japan, quite handful of research were conducted (Japan demanded the research to the US for its conduct to avoid bias in the report); then, it turned out that those women were, in fact, sex workers but not kidnapped or forced to be in the business by the Japanese military but rather they started due to their personal reasons or recruited (whether forceful or not) by a private agency (or you may call them an organized crime group)….

Alex Yoon

I read a hateful comment you made about China. First you make derogatory statements about China on Japan daily press, now you try to attack Japan. You are filled with so much hate.

Feed & Social

JDP Info

About JDP

The task and mission of the Japan Daily Press is to engage Asia and the World with a never-ceasing flow of news and editorials on various facets of Japan. We plan to keep our readers up-to-date on Japanese politics, economy, society, and culture with our daily news.